Burnley-born Oliver Norwood helped Reading end the Clarets’ unbeaten home start on Saturday.

The three points helped the Royals leapfrog Burnley into third place in the Championship.

And the Northern Ireland international feels if Reading can finish above the Clarets, they will be on target for promotion.

Norwood, a boyhood Burnley fan, made a key goalline clearance from Sam Vokes to deny Burnley a point, and he said: “I’m not too bothered to be fair - it’s work at the end of the day.

“We came here to win and we did. It was a very difficult afternoon but we came away with three points and now we’re level on points with Burnley. Hopefully we can finish above them this season, hopefully if we do we’ll be in the play-offs or the top two if we do that.”

But he accepts there is a long way to go yet: “We’ve only played nine games, there’s still another 30-odd games to go.

“It’s early days. We’re just quietly going about our business. We’ll let other people do the talking and bigging up, we just go about our business and keep picking up points.”

Reading raced into a two-goal lead and held on after Tendayi Darikwa halved the deficit, and Norwood accepted: “It was a very tough test. We knew what Burnley are about, we know what they are as a team, they know each other really well and have been together for three years now as a team. They make it difficult for you, they get the ball forward quick, they’re energetic, have a high press, but we weathered the storm and got the two early goals.

“Maybe towards the end it was a bit uncomfortable but the rest of the game it was quite comfortable.”